Machine for shrinking hat bats



Dec. 12, 1939. -r v Q 2,183,238

MACHINE FOR SHRINKING HAT BATS Filed Nov. 17, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 562M5 2 A. GENJST Dec. 12, 1939. A. GENEST MACHINE FOR SHRINKING HAT BATS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 17, 1937 i game/WM HOME/PA. GENEJZ" Dec. 12, 1939. GENEsT I 2,183,238

MACHINE FOR SHRiNKING HAT BATS Filed NOV. 17, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 grvuc Moo HOMER A; GENEJT "20 the ba'ts' -,are turned. over bottom side up and corrugated or fluted; Means'are alsoprovided'for 20 55 dioated in the appended claims. f justing wheel 38 to 'allow 'manu'al setting of arms 5 f ee ea I 2am Mirth. "sures aisazss a I MACHINEIOR SHRHNKINGQHAT BATS Homer A. Genest, Danbur'y, Conn, assignorito UnitedStates Hat Machineryflorporation, New York, N. Y., acorporation of Virginia Application November 17, 1937, Serial no. 174,987

3 Claims. e1.'28

This invention relates to the sl'irinking of felt V In the accompanying drawings, wherein like articlesfor' example, bats from which fur or parts are indicated bylike numerals: 1 felt hats are made and it has'particular refer- Figural is a plan view of the machine; ence tome method and machin'e for efie'ctin'g "Fig. 2 is an end view of Fig. 1;

5 the'sta'rting operation on hat bats; this operation l Fig. Bis a more or less diagrammatlc'view show- 5 I iollowing'the hardening of the bats in the usual ing the means for adjusting the hardening cages;

manner. i I Fig. 4 is a fragmentary View taken on the line The practice in starting is to rollup a number il of Fig.1 1; and of bats ina'pieceor" burlap orflannel, place them Fig.5 is an enlarged diagrammatic viewshow 10 in a'trough. of a machine-fin such position that ing the cages and the pressure rolls. f I 10 when thewmachine is in operation the tendency In general, the machine. comprises a bottom Will be to wind the assembly tighter. After a supporting roll A, a top pressure roll B prefermachine has run'a predetermined time, the roll ably having its axes in vertical alignment with of bats removed, unrolled, turned over bottom' the axis of roll A, and intermediate, horizontally side up, and/again rjolledfrom tip to brim, and arranged side rolls C and D which are spaced 5 the rewound assembly is placed inthe machine to either side of the center line between the axis 1 and theoperation repeated, after which the bats of the rolls A and B. The top and bottom rolls are rolled from oneside to the other, placed back A and B- are circumierentiallycorrugated. or in the machine, and again manipulated. Next, grooved and'the side wallsIC and D-longitudinally again rolled from side to side and manipulated, spacing the top and bottom rolls and side'rolls in this condition. The four operations that is, relative to one another to form a trough theretwo tips and two side rollsrare called a between adapted to receive a roll'oi' bats E tobe round. This operation'has generally beencarmanipulated in the machine. v ri'ed onin machines provided with cages wherein More particularly.the'machine includes a suitthe, bat roll was supported in a trough between able frameflt onwhich isjournalledin suitable I rolls or cages and the cages were provided with bearings a longitudinally extending transverse longitudinally,extending rods forming a plurality shaft H2; The bottom roll A is secured in any of curved surfaces on the face thereof which; suitable Way onshaft 12 for rotation therewith. acted upon the bats. In some'instanc'es, the sur- The surface of roll A is'circumferentially cor- 30 faces oi-thedrums were diagonally grooved so rugated to present a plurality of ridges lfi and that aflongitudinal spiralaction took place. Howgrooves Ml Arranged above and spaced to either ever, in allot them the actionhas' been limited flside'of the verticalcenter of bottom roll A are to the longitudinal extending operation. corrugated side rolls or cages C and D, each'roll 5 An object of the present invention is to percomprising a pairbf oppositely disposed heads form a double action-that is, the hat bats are interconnected hyfspaced, transversely extend- ,acted upon both longitudinally and circumferem, ing rods 32;p referably of circular cross section. tially. Rolls C and-Dcooper'ate with. roll-A to'support' Afurther object is amachine which simultanea roll of bats E between them; the side rolls C ouslylperforms four operations upon the bats. and D being adjustable horizontally to increase A still further object is a machine in which the the width of the trough." In the machine shown,

trough for receiving the hat bats may. belenlarged the rolls are respectively supported on shafts H or reduced' tov receive hat bats of various sizes. I and is adjacent the ends of the radially extend A stillfurther-object is a machine which is exing supporting arms jlt andjtilpwhich arms are I tremelyfiexible'economical,and in whichthe hat coaxially and pivotallysupported on the shaft i2 45 bats may be correctly and effectively started adjacent the shaft bearings l.

' preliminary to the felting or shrinking operation. The arms l9 and 2E) alsoextendbelowshaft Other-objects will be in part obvious and in 7 l2 through anopening 23 inthe top plate 24 of part pointed out more in detail-hereinafter. the frame It) and terminateinadjusting fingers 5 The inventionaccordinglyjconsists in the feaa 2! and 22. The adjusting fingers engage a stop 'tures of construction, combinationoi elements, pin 25 fixed'to a nut 25;,which is'adjustahlealong andarrangement of parts which 'willbeexemplirod 21. Rod 21 is journalled insuitable bearings" 1 fied in the construction hereafter set forth and 28 in iramelil and held therein'by collars. 29;

the .scopepf the application of which will'zbe inthe outer end being provided'with asuitable ad I adjusted horizontally in a number of ways, the- I9 and 20. Rod 21 is oppositely threaded to either side of the vertical center through shaft 12, whereupon rotation of rod 21 the arms will adjust rolls C and D towards or away from one another, depending upon the direction of rotation.

Although rolls 0 and D could be mounted and particular arrangement shown conveniently enables the support of means for simultaneously rotating bottom roll A and side rolls D and C. The bottom roll A and cages l9 and 20 are interconnected for simultaneous rotation. This is accomplished through a gear 35 fixed on shaft l2, which meshes with idlers 36 and 31 rotatably carried respectively by the radial arms l9 and 2!! which, in turn, mesh with gears 38 and 39 fixed on shafts l1 and I8, respectively. With this arrangement, when gear 35 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction to rotate bottom roll A in a counterclockwise direction, the motion will be transmitted to the cages through the idlers and gears to cause a similar rotation of rolls C and D. The shaft l2 may be rotated in any suitable way; in the embodiment shown there being provided a belt driven pulley 4B which is freely rotated on the. end of shaft l2- and'clutched into and out of engagement with shaft l2 as hereinafter explained.

There is further provided a top pressure roll B preferably arranged with its axis in vertical ali nment with the axis of roll A and is formed with a plurality of ridges 45 and grooves 46 in like manner thereto. In the mach ne shown, the grooves of the two pressure rolls are in alignment, although, if desired, they could be stabgered. The roll B is carried by a pivoted frame or carrier comprising a pair of arms 41 fixed to a rock shaft 48 journalled in brackets 49. The pressu e roll B is also adjustable to accommodate bats of various sizes; one of the supporting arms 47 being provided with a slot 5|) which receives a bolt 5! carried by one end of a lever 52, which lever is journalled on a rock shaft 48 and its other end connected to a yoke member 53. This yoke member is controlled for automatically raising and lowering roll B in timed relation to the starting and stopping of the machine. To accomplish this, there is provided a cam shaft 54 on which is mounted a cam 55 adapted to engage a roller 56 on the lower end of yoke member 53. On the outer endof cam shaft 54 there is carried a plate 5'1. having a stop 58 adapted to engage one end of a clutch operating arm 59. This clutch operating arm 59 is pivoted at 68 and is provided with a yoke 5! which engages a clutch sleeve 62 keyed to the transverse shaft l2. The outer end of the yoke arm 59 is provided with a suitable control handle 63. The cam shaft is rotated from shaft [2 through a belt 64 and suitable speed reducing means 65. The operation of the machine is as follows: The bats are rolled in the usual manner in a piece of burlap or fiannel that is, four to eight bats are laid one'upon the other on the flannel and rolled up from tip to brim. The rolled assembly is placed in the trough formed by the rolls A, C, and D, and, if necessary, rolls C and D may then'be adjusted by turning of hand wheel 30 'to properly space them for the size of the bat being manipulated. Roll B may likewise be properly adjusted by properly setting the bolt 5| in the slot 56 and then securing same in place. The clutch is now thrown in by the operating lever 63, whereupon shaft l2 will be rotated and the geartrain driven to simultaneously rotate rolls A, C, and D. The cam 55 will simultaneously move out of engagement with roll 56, whereupon roll B will be lowered into position on the top of the roll of bats E and frictionally driven by engagement therewith. After a predetermined time, cam 55 will engage roll 56 to lift roll B out of engagement with hat bats E and the stop 58 on member 51 will engage the inner end of clutch shaft 59 to throw the clutch out of engagement. The bats are then formed for anoher round.

During the operation of the machine, due to the pressure of roll B acting downwardly on the top of the roll E, it will be seen (Fig. 5) that the bat will be circumferentially corrugated by the top and bottom rolls A and B as part of the bat will be forced downwardly into the grooves of the roll A and upwardly into the grooves of the roll B. Simultaneously, the rolls C and D will produce longitudinal corrugations or flutes in the hat bat. As the bat E is rotated, the corrugations from the top and bottom rolls will be broken up by the flutes of the side rolls, and vice versa. In this way, the hat bats are subjected to a double action-that is, they are simultaneously manipulated both circumferentially and transversely. As there is a tendency on each round to reduce the size of the bat due to the manipulation which causes the felt or fur to interlock and harden. it is possible to finally adiust the side rolls after each round to take up for such reduction in the size of the bat. It will be seen that the action is extremely smooth, elastic. and

gentle. and avoids defective work. As the bat is simul aneously acted upon by the four rolls. it is subjected to considerable 'more manipulation than is accomplished when fewer than four rolls are util zed, and, as a result, the speed of maninu ation is considerably increased. Moreover.

as the bats are arranged in a substantially rectangular trough, it is impossible for them to work out of same.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made w t out departing from the scope thereof. it is intended that all matter contained in the above desc intion or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which. as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim as my inventionz 1. In a machine of the character described. a

bottom roll, a pair of side rolls arranged in. a

plane above said bottom roll and spaced apart to cooperate therewith to position a roll of bats. and a top roll above said other rolls adapted to exert pressure on the bats, said top and bottom rolls being circumferentially corrugated and said side pressure roll arranged above said other rolls and w oiroumferentially grooved similarly to said supporting roll.

3. ma machine of the character described, a transversely extending shaft, a bottom r011 mounted thereon, a pair of upwardly extending radial arms pivotally mounted on said shaft, the upper end of said arms extending beyond the periphery of the supporting roll, a shaft supported between the ends of said arms, aroll supported on said shaft, a gear supported on the end of said shaft, a second gear supported on the end of said longitudinal shaft, and an intermediate gear carried on saidradial arm interconnecting 5 said gears.

HOMER A. GENEST. 

